Mid-Year Updates

If you use yearly Scorecard metrics, you can now set them to be updated in a mid-year month.

You no-longer have to select a quarter-end month to see the values for quarterly Scorecard metrics, or a year-end month for Yearly metrics.  Once entered, the values show up for the entire period.

The Entity CSV Download has a new column that indicates whether each metric is Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly.  If Yearly with a mid-year update month, it names the month.

Plan Diagnostics Report

This new page is like a health check-up for your planning process.  It displays the following statistics about the selected plan:

Reviews
Has this plan been reviewed effectively?

Achievements
Over all, how well are we achieving this plan?

Creation
How well did we define what we planned to do?

Most of the numbers link to custom reports on the Plan Status screen that show exactly how the number was calculated.  Only the Missing Owner numbers link to the Ownership Transfer screen.  A Show Percentage control in the gray top-navigation toggles most fields from showing counts to showing percentages.

Release 2014-01-31: Metric Auto-Roll-Up

Automatically roll-up metric values from contributors to higher-level metrics. Choose from a variety of automatic calculation options: Add, Average (mean), Maximum, or Minimum.

Tactic Start/End Notifications

Subscribe to an email alert for the start and finish dates of any tactic you own by clicking on the little bell icon next to that tactic:

Notifications On:
Notifications Off:

Release 2013-09-13: Metrics on Plan Status Screen

Metrics can now be displayed on the Plan Status screen.

Check the Show Metrics box and click Apply Settings just like any other report setting.

Release 2012-07-02: Simplified Reviews

• A to-do list-style "My Reviews" screen makes it even quicker and easier for most people to update their reviews. It shows everything you need to review in one place and lets you update the reviews right there, without even clicking to another screen.
• Review overdue reminders are now available up to three times per month. Your application manager can ask PlanBase to set up this feature for your company at any time.
• New Select All checkbox on the Home screen lets you clean up all your old messages in a snap!

Release 2012-05-12: Longer Links

• Links to supporting materials can now be up to 500 characters long (was 255 chars). This affects objective/strategy reviews, tactic reviews, function links, and process definition links.
• Creation Status approval has been simplified - the two controls on the Strategy Edit screen have been merged into one for clarity and ease of use.
• Plan CSV Download now includes the Strategy Tag of the parent strategy next to each tactic.

Improved Tactic Review

The improved Tactic Review screen shows the tactic description, dates, and past performance. It also warns you if you try to update a tactic outside the dates you had planned to work on it.

We also now display a count of users vs. the total number of licenses you have on the Users screen. If you are at or over your limit of licensed users, or you wish to increase your limit, your Application Manager knows how to purchase more.

Release 2011-05-09: Data Subsets

Scorecard Improvements

• "Metric Subsets" have been renamed, "Data Subsets" because in addition to picking metric types, you can now choose your favorite sub-entities. This facilitates a greatly pared-down Heat Map, Metric Contributors, and Variance Analysis (when you add a Pareto analysis on the Process Review screen).
• The Heat Map screen now has a Show Targets button to display targets as well as actuals. When not showing targets you can still hover over an actual value to see the target, units, and what-is-better (more/less/closer).
• When showing targets, the Heat Map screen now shows a label indicating which row is actual and which is target.

Focus reviews with data subsets

Businesses commonly track a large number of metrics on their scorecards, but individual leaders need to focus their reviews on the subset of data most meaningful to them. PlanBase Scorecard lets you define subsets of the metrics and sub-entities most essential to you for a more concentrated view of every Scorecard screen, but particularly of the Heat Map screen.

Use a subset by selecting it in the Data Subsets drop-down tab in the top navigation section of any Scorecard View screen. Selecting a data subset is sticky - it stays selected when you navigate between the Scorecard View screens. To view all metrics and entities again, select *All Data* from the same drop-down, or click a link in the left-hand navigation pane, or edit something on the Entity View screen.

Release 2011-02-28: Pareto Analysis

Scorecard Improvements

• Added an optional Pareto analysis and Variance analysis to each process and metric review (on the Process Review screen).
• "Tactic Assigned" and "Review Overdue" messages are now generated for process improvements and corrective actions as well as tactics.
• Now everyone has access to the Load Metric screen (formerly only the Application Manager had access).  It works like the Batch Data Load screen except it only loads one metric at a time and it's designed to be used by cutting and pasting data directly from your spreadsheet into the system.  This makes it even easier for each metric reporter to enter their own data (and historical data too).  Look for the little blue load link next to your favorite (non-batch-loaded) metrics on the Business Unit screen.

Usability Improvements

• Made Metric Subsets stickier - now editing a metric or updating a review leaves you in the subset you were in.  Editing a process or function or clicking something in the left-hand navigation still pops you out of the subset.
• The subset name now appears at very top of the screen, making it more obvious and mirroring the way the Function View works.
• Changed name of "Scorecards" and "Plans" section in left-hand navigation to "My Scorecards" and "My Plans" for clarity.
• (Brief) message on each user's home page announces the new release.

Security Improvements

• We now store each password using multiple rounds of SHA-512 hashing with unique salt for each user, which is currently state-of-the art for making passwords "unrecoverable."
• This increases the maximum password length.  All alphabets of the Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) are still supported in both the password and user ID (and every other field in the system).
• We have also improved our password requirements (to encourage people to make better passwords), by adding several popular passwords to the list of reserved words and by prohibiting 4 or more of the same character in a row (e.g. 1111, AaAa, etc.).
• To take advantage of the new storage you must change your password.
• Ninety days after this release, anyone who hasn't changed their password yet will be forced to change it.
• It is still each user's responsibility to use a unique password for every account, to make each password strong, unguessable, compliant with their organization's security guidelines, and to keep each password secret, never sharing it or their account with others for any reason.
• PlanBase is continually looking for ways to improve security, not just password security.  PlanBase encourages people to use good passwords by having password requirements, by making helpful suggestions, and by storing passwords securely.  But even PlanBase cannot protect you against a hacker outright guessing your password (on the first try), or stealing a reused password from another site and using it to access this one.  Only you can choose a unique, unguessable password for each of your accounts and store them securely.  Please do your part to keep your account, your company, and PlanBase applications secure.

Release 2010-04-30: Strategy End-Status Approval

Ending a strategy eliminates the need to review it in subsequent quarters. There are three ways to end a strategy; it can be Completed, Canceled, or put On Hold. Choosing one of these statuses from the Review Status screen may end the strategy immediately, or starting with this release, it may require approval from the owner of the objective above your strategy in the plan similar to the way Creation Statuses are approved, depending on how your company is configured.



This release also adds new Activity radio buttons to the Review Status screen for selecting whether the strategy is Active, Completed, On Hold, or Canceled. This new control will put the right status in the Concern for Future drop-down for you.

• Active: This strategy is currently being pursued.


• Complete: Marking a strategy complete signifies that all actions have been completed and all improvements are sustainable.  This success-status will show up for all future review periods and will not require additional reviews, but it is prudent to check on the metrics for this strategy from time to time to ensure that the progress is maintained.


• On Hold: The strategy is not currently being pursued, but is likely to be pursued again some time in the future.  The hold-status will show up for all future review periods and will not require additional reviews.


• Canceled: The strategy is no longer being pursued.  The canceled status will show up for all future review periods and will not require additional reviews.

There are three levels of End-Status Approval configuration. Ask your support contact to configure this for your company:

• None: No approvals are required. This is the default, what all users have now.


• Completed Only: Approvals are only required for the completed status.  This status is configurable individually because you may wish to continue to monitor a completed strategy to be sure the improvement is sustainable.


• All: Completed, On Hold, and Canceled statuses all require approval.

If you are reviewing a top-level objective, or you own the objective above your strategy in a plan (thus making you the approver) it will never require approval.

When marking a strategy Completed you will have an easier time getting it approved if you enter the reason you believe that the improvements you achieved are sustainable, since that is how the reviewer will evaluate your request for completion.  Reviewers may ask owners to monitor and review a strategy for another few months before allowing them to mark it Completed.  When a strategy is put On Hold or Canceled, it is usually much more cut-and-dry and the approval process (if enabled) can be as much about notifying the boss of the change as is it is about getting approval.

New Release of PlanBase Hoshin provides Monthly Reviews, Reporting, and Security Enhancements

Monthly Reviews

PlanBase Hoshin now supports monthly reviews as well as quarterly. It takes just 3 clicks to change any existing plan from a quarterly review schedule to a monthly one. You don't have to make up your mind: you can change it from monthly to quarterly and back again as often as you like without loosing any data!

Dashboarding

A reporting dashboard has been added to the Plan Status screen that allows you to filter by status, depth, or function: "Show me what's red!" It is also possible to email all the owners of the strategies in a plan or just the owners that show up in any slice of data you select on this screen.

Language Support

Characters used in most of the world's writing systems are now supported along with the Euro symbol (€). This means you can enter data into the system in Arabic, Armenian, Balinese, Bengali, Bopomofo, Braille, Buginese, Buhid, Cherokee, CJK Unified, Coptic, Cyrillic, Devanagari, English, Ethiopic, Georgian, Glagolitic, Greek, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul Jamo, Hanunoo, Hebrew, Hiragana, Kanbun, Kannada, Katakana, Khmer, Lao, Limbu, Malayalam, Mongolian, Myanmar, NKo, New Tai Lue, Ogham, Oriya, Phags-pa, Runic, Sinhala, Syloti Nagri, Syriac, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tai Le, Tamil, Telugu, Thaana, Thai, Tibetan, Tifinagh, and Yi (partial list).

Security

At PlanBase we are always striving to keep our clients' data as secure as possible. Several new security enhancements were rolled out with this release:

• Accounts are now locked after 13 months of inactivity (a shorter period is available upon request).


• Password expiration is now available upon request.


• PlanBase Hoshin has always picked the strongest encryption a browser/client would support, but now it actually refuses to connect using outdated encryption schemes. Any modern browser and operating system which is still supported by its vendor should continue to work just fine (Windows® 2000 must have all the latest patches applied).

Streamlined Experience

We have worked very hard to make this version even easier to learn and to allow advanced users to perform their work even faster with fewer clicks and less reading. All the new functionality has been added to the online help system which we also make available to our clients as a printed manual.

Find Out More!

If you are interested in learning more about PlanBase Hoshin, please watch our audio/video PlanBase Hoshin Demonstration. You can also Contact Us for more information or to evaluate PlanBase Hoshin for use in your organization.

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